Ofsted News – Issue 104 – August 2021

Our free monthly newsletter

Issue 104 | August 2021

Sections

• All Ofsted
• Schools
• Children’s social care
• Further education and skills
• Early years and childcare

COVID-19 updates
Ofsted: COVID-19 rolling update – This sets out our guidance and information relating to COVID-19 (coronavirus) for schools, early years, children’s social care and further education and skills providers. We are updating it regularly. If you need to see what we’ve added since you last checked it, you can select ‘see all updates‘ on the page.

All Ofsted
Ofsted pen portraits of Her Majesty’s Inspectors (HMI) – Updated pen portraits for HMI in the South East and South West regions.
Inspecting safeguarding in early years, education and skills settings – A new section has been added to the policy about Ofsted’s review of sexual abuse in schools and colleges and there are further references throughout the guidance outlining expectations of providers. There are also updates throughout to align with the Department of Education’s updated guidance ‘Keeping children safe in education’.
Gathering additional evidence to secure an incomplete inspection – The policy has been updated to give further clarification on the steps that will be taken if we decide that a further visit is necessary to gather additional evidence to complete an inspection.

Schools
School inspection handbook – Updates to the school inspection handbook. See ‘Summary of changes’ for details.
Ofsted’s plans: 2021 – Updated the ‘Non-association independent schools’ section to clarify that the inspection cycle will be extended by four terms.
State-funded school inspections and outcomes: management information – Published management information as at 31 July 2021. Date of proposed addition to future management information releases (the names of current multi-academy trusts and/or academy sponsors) changed from 12 August 2021 to 13 September 2021.

Children’s social care
Ofsted’s response to The Case for Change – Ofsted’s National Director for Social Care, Yvette Stanley, writes to Josh MacAlister, Chair of The Case for Change, about Ofsted’s response to the review.
Children’s homes providing short breaks – An analysis of children’s homes that provide short breaks, usually for disabled children.
Inspecting local authority children’s services (ILACS) from 2018 – Updates to ILACS framework. See ‘Summary of framework changes’ for details.
Introduction to children’s homes – Revised guidance on applying to manage more than one children’s home.
Apply to be connected with a children’s social care service (SC2) – Clarified that responsible individuals only have to use this service when a new provider is applying to register with Ofsted. This is not a change in policy or law.
Inspection outcomes of children’s homes – Data published to cover the period 1 April 2021 to 30 June 2021.
Data on COVID-19 visits: social care providers – New transparency data uploaded for the period 1 September 2020 to 31 July 2021.

Further education and skills
Further education and skills inspection handbook – Updates to paragraphs 275 to 279 in the further education and skills inspection handbook. See ‘Summary of changes’ for details.

Early years and childcare
Early years inspection handbook – Updates to the early years inspection handbook. See ‘Summary of changes’ for details.
Ofsted EIF inspections and the early years foundation stage (EYFS) – Added information about how we prioritise early years inspections.
Reported coronavirus (COVID-19) notifications by registered early years and childcare settings – Added data for weeks beginning 12, 19 and 26 July and 2 August.
Consented addresses for childminders and domestic childcare – Updated consented addresses for childminders and domestic childcare as at 31 July 2021.
Joiners and leavers in the childcare sector – Published data on joiners and leavers in the childcare sector in July 2021.